Infinite Stratos: Burning Star
by CrimsonTheKing
Summary: A second male is discovered who can pilot an IS only a few months after Ichika originally found out he could. This boy's name is Connor Rain, and he has been held under close watch by the US government in order to make the perfect IS soldier with AI. Now, only a few weeks after The Gospel incident, they send him to the IS academy. This is sure going to be hell for him. Rated M
1. Chapter 1

**Notice: Hey everyone, CrimsontheKing is back at it again with another story! Just to let you know, I do not own Infinite Stratos or any of its characters. I do however, own my OC that I am using for this story. The OC's name is Connor Alexander Rain, story will be told in a third person style. If you guys have any comments/questions about this story please let me know. Hope you all enjoy Infinite Stratos: Burning Star. Rated M for matureness, blood, cursing. The backstory takes place two years before "The Gospel" incident and then leads up to after it when everyone comes back to the school. Has no relation to the second season.**

 **Also, just to let some people know thoughts or mental conversations will be like such** _"Insert sample text here"_ **and normal talking will be like** "Another sample text" **Enjoy the story!**

  
How the hell did he manage to get himself into this mess, one minute he's trying to get his little sister from school the next he has a gun pointed to his head by some government agent. It wasn't as if he knew about them testing for aptitude for IS pilots, let alone that as soon as he got near the damned thing it turned on. He quickly tried to explain that he had no idea what was happening and that he was only here for his sister so they could catch a flight to a tag-team tournament in New York. But did they listen, of course they didn't fucking listen, why would they listen to the second male to ever activate an IS. Connor silently sighed to himself as he was about to put through some very rigorous testing and possible training.

 _"Fucking bullshit."_ Connor thought to himself as the probes that were on his body were finally taken off and he sat up. _"It's not my fault their machine is messed up and decided to activate then and there."_ After sitting there for a bit he was then escorted by some suits to a large hanger in which another one of those machines sat, but this one was different. He wasn't sure how, but it was like he could almost feel it. Another suit then stepped out from behind the machine and smiled at Connor. _"That can't be good."_ After brief introductions, the suit identified himself to be the head of the IS development in the U.S. and that he believed that they could work together to do something incredible. It was at this time that Connor was knocked to the floor by one of the suits behind him, while the others held him down the one that knocked him down stepped forward with a syringe in his hand. Connor became wide eyed at this and struggled to get free, that was all stopped rather quickly when the syringe entered his neck and everything started to go black.

"Don't worry Mr. Rain, you'll love what we're going to do to you." The man said and with that everything went black. As it turned out, the stuff inside the syringe was actually a prototype of an AI system that would merge with its host's mind and become a second mind that would assist the host in all things. After a while of being unconscious Connor woke up, feeling like something was watching him he looked around. Seeing no one, not even the suits, he decided he need to get the fuck out of there then and there. After standing up something ticked, _"What the hell was in that syringe?"_ He soon got his answer as a female voiced answered him, in his own head. _"That would be me, the experimental AI known as Flare. Pleasure to finally make you acquaintance Mr. Rain. Or should I call you Connor?"_ So in short, Connor's life was now fucked.

All of that was two years ago, since then he has been trained in anything and everything about the IS, trained in multiple types of combats, given weapon training, language training, and finally, training to use the AI in his head to his advantage. Eventually he was given access to a room in which he could stay in without being supervised. He would be soon given an IS of his own that he had designed for the most part, he got a say in color, weapons, and the first form. Other than that, it was up to some genius whom he had never even met. Now, if only this room he was in had a game console or a pc, he'd finally be able to take back his rank as one of the best gamers in the world. Unfortunately, that was not the case, he was just given a basic living quarter with a bed and small desk. _"This sucks, doesn't it."_ After time, his AI had adopted to his personality and became his only friend during those two years of hell. She simply replied with a soft sigh as Connor laid down on his bed. _"Guess after I get my IS, they'll send me off to that academy."_ He said to Flare, _"Guess you're right. Better not be thinking anything weird!"_ She said and he simply responded with she'd know if he did. About an hour or two later, he was called to come to the hanger to receive his IS. Reluctantly he did so, dragging his feet as he was tired. As he got to the hanger, his tiredness seemed to fade away as he saw his IS and grinned. It was a dull grey, but that was only because he hadn't bonded with it and activated its first form, and if he had gotten what he wanted he doubt it'd be that way for long. As the main suit stepped up beside him, Connor had started calling him 'Crazy bastard' a few months after he was first brought here. It was a name that stuck and he and Flare had many laughs over it in his head.

"Well Connor, are you ready to go to school?" Crazy Bastard asked him and Connor simply nodded. He was later briefed on the situation he'd be going into. He'd be going to the academy as a first year and was told to act as if he'd never even seen an IS besides the one that activated for him only a few weeks ago, which was when the US released that he had activated an IS, and be the representative cadet for the US. After Connor was briefed he was told to pack his bag and be ready to fly to Japan, his personal IS would be delivered to him later in the day. Soon enough he was on his way to Japan in a private jet and was to say that Crazy Bastard was his uncle and that's how he was in a private jet.

 _"Kind of bullshit if you ask me, why send us now after The Gospel went rogue and was destroyed. No one is going get anywhere near us."_ Flare said in his mind as they flew. She was processing how to make him seem less weird on his first day. _"Maybe that's for the best Flare."_ He responded tiredly, his sleep schedule was going to so out of whack when he got there.

Ichika and the gang were sitting on the roof enjoying their lunches, talking about today's activities and seeing what everyone was doing after school. Everyone had eventually accepted that Ichika and Houki had gotten together, they had even made a little party congratulating them. Soon the bell rang for evening class and everyone got up and went to their class, Rin went to Class-2 because she wasn't in Class-1, and took their respected seats. That was when Miss Yamada entered and stood behind the desk.

"Well everyone, I have some exciting news for you! We have a new transfer student!" She said as the class groaned and complained about a new student this late in the schoolyear. Miss Yamada sighed and Chifuyu entered the room.

"You kids should learn to respect what your teacher says." She said as she then slammed a hand on the desk. "And you will greet this new student with kindness and respect!" everyone silently nodded with frowns as Chifuyu motioned towards the door. "You can come in now."

At the sound of the door opening everyone turned their heads to see who would be entering the room. Much to everyone's surprise, Connor walked in with an academy uniform, but instead of the usual red and black, his was only black with a bit of red around the cuffs. Everyone gasped in surprise as he walked in the room and whispers were heard. Connor had styled his brown with red tips hair back before he came to the academy and his eyes seemed almost completely black, he also seemed very tired. He then stood next to Chifuyu as his name and ID card appeared on the screen behind him.

"Hello everyone, my name is Connor Rain. Pleased to meet you. And before I get questions about my eyes, no they are not black, they're just a really dark shade of brown. And…" he took in a deep breath "I am the Representative Cadet for America." At that last part, Ichika, Charlotte, Houki, Laura, and Cecilia all looked like they'd seen a ghost or something. Needless to say, they were shocked. "Hope we can have a good rest of the year." With that, Chifuyu sent him to his seat, which was in the very back, and began the evening lesson.

At the end of the class, Chifuyu directed everyone with personal IS to spend some time training while everyone else was to study. With class now dismissed and everyone leaving Connor began to be one of the last to walk out of the room with his hands in his pockets, but he was suddenly stopped at the door by a hand on his shoulder. He looked back with tired eyes to see Ichika was the one with his hand on Connor's shoulder.

"Can I help you?" Connor asked. "No, but maybe I can help you. Cause if we want to get some training in, we'd better run." It was at this moment Connor remember that they were the only guys in a school full of girls. He cursed under his breath and looked at Ichika and nodded and the two guys bolted down the hallway as a group of girls had begun running towards them, yelling out questions. _"Flare, I need a quick escape route here please."_ Flare then pulled up a map of the building and showed him the quickest path whilst avoiding girls.

After Connor and Ichika got to the dressing room and gotten changed into their piloting outfits they began to make their way to the practice field. Connor was then pulled to the side by Miss Yamada and informed that his personal IS had just arrived and she handed him its confined form, which was a dark red watch. He nodded in thanks and then caught up to Ichika on the field. He then heard an energy cannon charge up and he stopped in tracks, and looked up in the sky to see Cecilia and her Blue Tears aiming her sniper rifle at him.

 _"Shit."_ He thought to himself as he thought about activating his own IS but Flare told him not. _"Perhaps she just wants to talk?"_ Soon after Flare said that Cecilia called out to him.

"Who do you Americans think you are?" She said as she slowly drifted downwards, her rifle still aimed at him. Connor then looked at Ichika as the rest of the girls began walking onto the field, the only one who wasn't there was Charlotte. Connor then responded to Cecilia, while looking Ichika in the eyes.

 _"This was a setup, they're going to make you regret coming here by trying to make you feel guilty about The Gospel incident."_ Flare said in his mind

"I have no qualms with you, nor did I take any part of The Gospel going rogue, so I don't see why you should be angry at me." Connor then stopped for a moment. "Unless you mean to ride my conscience about something my country had no control over. If that's the case, I'm out of here." Connor said as he turned away from the group and Cecilia suddenly growled and fired at him as Ichika yelled at her to stop. The laser should've hit Connor dead on, but thanks to Flare, he was able to react in time to be spared. He sidestepped the shot and then looked at Cecilia in anger, not only did she attack without reason, if he didn't have Flare he would've just died.

"You really want to do this? Fine, let's do it." With that, Connor held his right arm out as a red light shown, "Howl, LoneWolf." With this, his IS activated and what looked to be almost like the regular training IS's, all for the exception of the wolf like ears and a few other details like the wings on the back looked like two rolled up carpets, the long claws on the hands and feet, and small spikes up the arms with the knees having them as well. Two weapons materialized in his hands, one was a shield while the other was a claymore, and the claymore had a red glow to it. Everyone was somewhat shocked that the American IS unit was rather basic and Cecilia laughed a bit.

"That is what the Americans sent with you to fight third and a fourth generation IS's. Pathetic." Cecilia said as the rest of the group were getting out of the way of the fight, Ichika sighing.

"Hey, remember who beat the Brits in the Revolutionary War? Oh yeah, it was us!" Connor said in retaliation and Cecilia looked quiet mad at that, calling him many names under her breath before she took aim with her rifle once more.

As the two slowly circled each other Cecilia was getting quiet fed up with this nonsense and decided to get back at Connor for insulting her country. She took a shot at him and Connor smiled, he had waited for her to take a shot before he ducked down and used an ignition boost to get close to her. Surprised by this, Cecilia quickly went to aim again but her weapon was knocked out of her hands by the flat side of Connor's sword, she then used the two missile launchers and fired at him, nearly point blank like she had done with Laura in the past. When the smoke cleared she saw that Connor had put up his shield and used the wings of his IS to block the explosion, he then quickly recovered and took a swing at her, hitting her on the shoulder before she got away.

"Huh?" Cecilia said as she saw that her shield was slowly, yet continuously dropping. She then looked at the piece of armor her had hit and saw it was smoking. Then she looked at Connor who smiled and dashed towards her and this time, bashing her with his shield thus stunning her. While she was stunned Connor then flipped and did an axe kick, landing it on her back and sent her back to the ground where her IS then dematerialized, and she looked at him, fear showing in her eyes. Why was she afraid of him, she was the one who initiated the fight.

He then landed his IS and sent it back to concealed form, before turning around and starting to walk off. Looking back, he say that he friends were rushing to her side to help her. He saw looks of hate coming from Houki and Laura, Rin was making sure Cecilia was okay, and Ichika just stared at him. Connor simply said this as he continued walking away, looking at Ichika.

"Now please leave me alone. I don't want to hurt you anymore than what my country already has." With that, Connor left the arena went to his room. He had been given the other bed in Ichika's room since they were both guys. Since it was nearly nighttime, and he was still on US time, he stood by the window wide awake. Wondering if they were talking bad about him, maybe even trying to get revenge on him for nearly hurting their friend.

 _"Why do you care? You're the one who said he wanted to be left alone aren't you?"_ Flare said and Connor silently agreed. _"Yeah, but I never wanted to be hated. I just wanted to be left alone."_ He sighed and looked through what few belongings were sent to him. _"Then why'd you follow Ichika?"_ She asked. A very valid question, why did he follow Ichika? Was it because he wanted to make a friend out of the only other guy at this school? Maybe it was, but that decision was behind him now, in the morning he was going to be the most hated person on campus.

He then found something that was sent to him and he smiled. They had sent him his saxophone, his one link to his little sister that he had with him at the facility. He then picked it up in its case and went to the roof of the building, Flare bypassing any security alarms he may have tripped. He then got to the roof and assembled his instrument, he hardly ever got the chance to play anymore so maybe he'd be able to play it more since he was free to do so if he wanted. He then put the mouthpiece into his mouth and it made a squeak, he then winced and adjusted before trying again. This time a soft note came from the instrument and he smiled, he still had his touch. He then got out a small speaker and played on loop some soft piano with a bit of light drums in the background. He then took a deep breath and began to play, putting his soul into playing the song. The sounds of smooth jazz fillings the night around the campus, some students wondering where the sound was coming from while others opened their windows and enjoyed the music. As Connor played, little did he know that he wasn't the only sneaking onto the roof that night.

As Charlotte got closer to the roof, the louder the music got and she wondered who would be playing music at a time like this. As she peeked her out of the door that lead to the roof, her jaw hit the floor. She saw the new kid, Connor, playing a soft jazz piece on a saxophone with a speaker behind him softly playing the background. She was kind of scared to say anything, she had heard from Laura what happened today in the arena between him and Cecilia, and she stood there silently. Maybe he was just sent to eliminate any threats to his county by his government when they found out he could pilot IS.

As the background music slowly stopped as did Connor stop at playing. He then set the saxophone in a stand that was made for it and then went to the railing of the roof and looked over it and sighed. He then made a sound that sounded like he was sniffling. Charlotte moved a bit out of the doorway and looked at him and was shocked to see that he was crying with something in his hand. She then heard him say.

"Don't worry little sister, I'll be home soon. And then we can spend a whole week playing video games, getting back up to the top in every single one of them." He then sniffled as he wiped his eyes, "So, don't you worry. We're going to get through this, just you and me." He then said something she probably wasn't supposed to here. "Maybe next year, if you pass the aptitude test, I can show you all of my friends I've made, though you'd probably just hit me or something wouldn't you, Lily."

Charlotte then saw what was in his hand and it was a locket with a girl, maybe a year or two younger than herself, with the same color of hair Connor had, but she had these almost crystal blue eyes. And then Connor spoke again.

"Yeah right." He closed the locket. "I don't think I'll have any friends here after what I did to Cecilia." He put the locket away and then slammed his hand onto the railing. "Why did I lose my cool so easily?! Come on Connor, you know you're better than that. But you just couldn't let it go, could you? Sure, she shot at you, maybe it was an accident. After all, Ichika tried to stop her. If it had hit would she have been sorry? Or would she have smiled in the face of victory after hurting someone from a country whose rogue IS nearly killed her friends? Is it my fault that I'm forced to be here?!" He wiped his eyes and took a deep breath, "Maybe coming here was a mistake, I mean, after all. I haven't even been able to unlock my first shift, much less the second one." He then placed both hands on the rail and sighed.

During all of this, Charlotte had gotten closer bit by bit. She knew his words were true, because they were filled with emotion. The same way Ichika's had been when he said she could rely on him. Maybe she should try and reach out to Connor? He seems lost like she was when she had been found out by Ichika. Unsure of what to do, Charlotte started to step forward but then stopped when his head a bit and she could see those dark brown eyes, they looked like they had lost any spark of life they had once held. Connor sighed at her and then looked back out over the academy.

"Come to take revenge for your friend I suppose?" He said with no emotion and Charlotte shook her head.

"I came because I heard your music." She got a bit closer. "It was breathtaking." She could have sworn that was blush she just saw on his face.

"I doubt that, I'm out of practice and I don't really play that often anyway." He said as a soft gust of wind blew by them, shaking his hair slightly.

"Well, for someone out of practice it was amazing, I could feel the emotion you put into each note." She finally stood next to him on the railing and he looked at her questionably.

"Aren't you afraid of me after what I did to your friend?" Connor asked, looking away from her.

"Why would I be? I heard the whole spill you had a bit ago." _"Yep, he's definitely blushing now."_ She said looked at him. "And I think it's sweet you're doing this for your sister."

"You wouldn't say things like that if you knew the whole story" He said moving away from the railing and grabbing his saxophone and putting it back in its case along with his speaker and stand for his instrument. "Trust me, my cher, you would be better off staying away from me. It's safer for everyone." With that, he leaves. Leaving Charlotte on the roof alone, her heart racing. Something about him just made her….. _"W-wait, did he just say my cher?"_ Charlotte was now blushing and smiling, she then looked out over the school and took a deep breath and said aloud.

"I doubt that it's safer for everyone, because it's not safe for you." She then leaves the roof going back to her room falling asleep, remembering the he played that music, she smiled.

Back in his room, Connor made sure Ichika was asleep before he came in. Not wanting to face his roommate after what he did earlier. He gently placed down his case and its contents near his bed before climbing into it and trying to go to sleep. It didn't take long and sleep finally found him. Unknown to him though, while Flare had remained silent the entire night, figuring Connor needed some alone time. She had went through the schools systems until found each one of Ichika's group, excluding Charlotte, and sent them a video file to their phones. Little did Connor know is that she had recorded him playing his instrument. Maybe the soft tears falling from his face he played, or the way he played such emotion, maybe she could change their minds about him. When she down sending the video, she made sure that the message came from a user called Flare, instead of some random ones and zeros. Then as she felt Connor falling asleep, she too turned off her 'mind' for the night. Time to see what tomorrow holds.

 **Hey everyone, hope you liked Chapter 1. If you have any comments or questions or even advice on this story, feel free to send me a message of just leave a review. Those who do, I'll sure to put answers at the bottom of my next chapter when I release it.**

 **P.S. If you don't know what 'my cher' is, google it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Notice:** **Welcome everyone to the second chapter of Infinite Stratos: Burning Star!** **Please reference the first chapter for any questions about talking between characters and mental talking.** **Please leave a review, and if you enjoy my story so far, follow and favorite.** **Also, there will be some special thanks at the end of this chapter, so stay tuned!** **Hope you enjoy.**

Early in the morning at the IS academy Connor woke up. He had always been an early riser and even more so now with Flare in his head 'yelling' at him to wake up. He slowly sat up in his bed with a groan and yawned. He then went to get out of his bed and grabbed an extra uniform and his IS suit before going to the bathroom to shower. After he showered and dressed Connor felt a bit better after what happened the day before. He then made sure he had his IS in its concealed form on his wrist before he walked out of the room to go to the classroom. As he walked the halls, he faintly saw the morning sun rising on the horizon. Connor had forgotten to fix his hair this morning so his hair was quite messy, with it all ruffled up. Noticing this, he attempted to fix it with his hands, failing to do so he pulled a comb out of his pocket and fixed it a little bit.

 _"_ _That's a bit better I suppose._ _Flare, during class today I want you to check the systems of my IS and run a full diagnostic on it._ _See what you can find out."_ With that, he walked into his classroom and took a seat at his desk before closing his eyes and figured he'd take a quick nap before everyone else got there and his first day as the most hated person on campus began.

Ichika woke up slowly and lazily and noticed that Connor was already gone. He sighed, as he recounted yesterday's events after Connor had left the arena. Everyone had gone to the infirmary to make sure Cecilia wasn't hurt or anything and as the nurse checked on her the girls had begun thinking of what to do. It was obvious that they couldn't just retaliate for what he did.

"How about we just beat him in the mock tournament in a few days? It'd be the perfect chance for revenge." Rin said as she was pacing the room.

Everyone thought that would be a good idea, but it'd be difficult. After all, he wasn't even in primary form and he had managed to take out Cecilia's Blue Tears, a third generation. As they discussed what pairs would be best against his IS. They decided to go with Ichika and Houki, being that all of them were close range types and Ichika had a one-shot kill. If Houki could distract Connor long enough, Ichika could move in for the finish.

After about an hour of being looked over by the nurse Cecilia was cleared of any injuries the group left and went to the cafeteria to get some dinner. After eating and leaving, Ichika and Houki said that they'd be going for a short walk before turning in for the night. The rest of the girls silently complained and went back to their rooms. As they couple walked around campus as it was nearing nighttime they decided that it would be best to get back to their rooms before anyone got any funny ideas. As they neared the dorm building, the sound of smooth jazz filled the air. After Ichika dropped Houki off at her room and bid her a goodnight he went to his room and found his roommate nowhere to be seen. Ichika had hoped to make a friend out of the newcomer, but that had ended miserably. Maybe things would be different in the morning, while Cecilia might hold a grudge for some time, Ichika hoped to make amends with his roommate and went to bed with the sounds of the jazz fading into the night.

Ichika then looked at the time and hurried to get ready for class or else he was going to be late. And he did not want to deal with his sister being angry at him this early in the morning. He then finished getting dressed and rushed to his morning class. As he got towards his classroom, he noticed a bit of commotion was coming from inside the room. As he got into the room, he noticed a group of girls surrounding Connor's desk and that he was getting bombarded with questions and some insults. Ichika sighed, someone other than them had seen the match yesterday and had spread the word of how Cecilia was nearly injured by the new kid. Ichika stepped up towards Connor's desk and was about to say something, but someone beat him to it.

"That's enough." Ichika turned around to see who had said that and was surprised to see that it was Cecilia who said that. The group of girls turned around to see her as well and they were all shocked and moved towards her, asking her if she was alright and would she do to get him back.

"Nothing, it was just a simple spar that got a bit too heated. Now all of you go and sit down, class will start soon." She said and all the girls grumbled as they went back to their seats. She then walked up to Connor and laid a note on his desk as everyone else began to walk in and she went to her seat.

Connor opened the note and it said that she was sorry. Connor sighed and put the note in his pocket whenever Charlotte entered the room. When she looked at him she nodded slightly and he returned the nod. Soon Chifuyu walked into the room and the class started. As the class went on, Connor was having mental talks with Flare.

 _"_ _What the hell?_ _Out of everyone I expected her to hate me the most."_ Connor said in is his mind.

 _"_ _Maybe she figured you guys stepped off on the wrong foot or something?"_ Flare responded with.

Connor softly nodded his head. Maybe that was it, but the rest of the school was definitely going to have it out for him either way. Class continued as usual until the bell for lunch rang and everyone left the room. Connor went up to the roof on the school building and was eating from a bag of chips he'd bought from a vending machine.

 _"_ _So Flare, what have you found out about LoneWolf?"_ He asked his AI companion as he ate a chip.

 _"_ _Well, it seems that when you enter first shift you'll have an increase in speed and attack._ _Along with access to a few more weapons._ _Then here's the real kicker, your second shift is only temporary._ _Seems like your IS can only activate its second shift for about twenty minutes before it reverts to first shift._ _It's something to do with the coding of the core._ _Seems like it wasn't finished all the way, it could pose a severe problem in the future for combat._ _But you can only activate second shift when the IS has at least above half shielding, and the data for the one-off ability is currently blocked."_ The AI said and Connor sighed.

So, the US had given an incomplete IS core which rendered his second form temporary, figures. He finished his chips and then leaned against the railing, feeling the sun on his skin and took a deep breath. He then heard the door to the roof open and two pairs of shoes walking towards him. He turned around to see who was walking towards him and saw Ichika and Houki, who slowed down when he saw them. Connor sighed and got off the railing and was going to leave before Ichika held out a hand in a friendly gesture.

"Seems like we got off on the wrong foot yesterday Connor, so how about we try again?" Ichika said and Connor sighed.

"Why the hell not, things can't get any worse can they." He said as he shook Ichika's hand and Ichika gave him a smile.

"Am I in the way of something romantic here by any chance?" Connor asked which caused the two to blush and stammer and Connor grinned. After they had gotten done rambling Ichika took out his phone.

"Actually, this is why we're here. And since we couldn't find in the cafeteria, we figured you'd be up here." He said holding out his phone and Connor looked at it. On the screen was a video playing and the faint sounds of jazz. Connor looked closer at the phone and realized that it was him on the video, he then looked up at Ichika.

"Where did you get this?" He asked, slightly nervous. Wondering who else had seen this video. Ichika just shrugged.

"I noticed it when we went to lunch, it was sent last night by a user named Flare." Ichika said as he then put his phone up. Connor was mentally cursing Flare out and movement from Houki snapped him back to reality. She had put a hand on his shoulder and grinned at him.

"You sound really nice. Where did you learn to play at?" She asked intriguingly.

"Well, nowhere. I kind of just learned how to after practicing a lot." Connor replied rubbing the back of his head with a smile.

The bell then rang for students to return to class and Connor followed after the couple, a slight grin on his face. As they got to the class, Connor nodded to Charlotte as he passed her desk on his way to his own. Everything was a lot quieter than it was this morning, usually everyone is busy gossiping or talking at this time. Then Miss Yamada and Chifuyu entered the classroom and Chifuyu looked over the students.

"Okay class, for today's evening class we are going to witness a mock battle between two pilots with personal IS." She then looked at Connor.

 _"_ _Shit"_ He thought to himself when she looked at him.

"Rain, it'll be you and Orimura for the mock battle. Go get suited up." The two boys excused themselves from class and went to the changing room to get into their pilot suits.

"Hope you know I won't go easy on you Ichika." Connor said with a smirk as he donned his black pilot suit with red and yellow lines on the sides and around the neck.

"Wouldn't expect you to Connor." Ichika said returning Connor's smirk. The two guy's then fist bumped and gave a bit of a laugh.

"Call me crazy, but, shouldn't Cecilia be furious with me?" Connor asked as they started heading for the field. Ichika just shrugged because he didn't have an answer.

As the two entered the field they instructed activate their IS. They each did so and moved a fair distance from each other, Flare giving him details on Ichika's IS, the Byakushiki Setsura in its second shift.

 _"_ _The Byakushiki Setsura is able pull off a double ignition boost, along with his left arm having an energy claw, particle cannon, and a shield._ _It is very fast and its one-off ability will make him a challenging opponent._ _You ready for this Connor?"_ Flare asked him and Connor simple nodded, deploying LoneWolf.

 _"_ _Okay Flare, when the fight starts try and activate first shift._ _I'm going to need the boost from it."_ Connor said and both pilots materialized their weapons. Then the buzzer sounded indicating that the mock battle was now starting.

Both of them rushed at each other and clashed swords, them smiling at each other. They then backed off and began to circle one another, Connor had his shield ready just in case Ichika charged and went for a shot at him. As the two circled each other, it was clear who had the crowds favor. Ichika would almost always be the favorite of the crowd, except there was one girl who was watching Connor. He looked over saw that it was Charlotte, and she was smiling at him. Ichika noticed that Connor was distracted and used this chance to get in close and fire a charged particle cannon shot at nearly point blank range. Connor had barely enough time to put his shield up, but it still hit him like a train sending him flying into the wall. Connor coughed as the smoke around him cleared a bit and shook his head. He then looked at his shield energy and sighed, that one attack dropped his twenty-five percent of his energy. Something then appeared on his screen and he smiled.

 _"_ _Do it, Flare."_ He thought to her as he began flying at Ichika from out of the smoke.

 _"_ _Initiating first shift."_ Flare said.

As Connor closed in on Ichika, he was smiling and Ichika couldn't help but smile too. It was then that the color of Connor's IS changed and it looked like it had shattered, revealing its first shift. Ichika, stunned by this, didn't move out of the way of Connor's attack and found himself getting flung away. Everyone gasped at the sight of his IS, It was now a matte black with bat-like wings that curved downward and had spikes on the bottom of them, the feet and hands were clawed and the hands had small spikes on the knuckles. And up the side of the arms with curved spikes and longer ones one the knees. The claws and spikes on his hands, arms, and feet were all a bloody shade of red that faded as it went back. Connor then cracked his neck and looked at Ichika who was smiling at him.

"Alright, time to get serious. Wouldn't you say my friend?" Connor asked as he dematerialized his shield and moved his sword to his left hand while a strange canister took the place of the spikes that vanished on his right arm, it had several tubes sticking out of it. As the back of the canister began to expand it looked as though air was being sucked into the canister. Ichika smiled at Connor and nodded and two rushed at each other again, their swords clashing. Ichika then raised his left hand and the particle cannon began to charge up. Connor smiled and raised his right arm.

"Let's see what this does." Connor said as he flicked one of his fingers and the canister released the air that it had sucked in in one shot, blasting Ichika away as Connor dematerialized it and his spikes came back.

"Not bad Connor." Ichika said and Connor smiled. Connor then rushed at Ichika, but Ichika was waiting for that. He then used his double ignition boost and was in front of Connor before he could react and slashed at him using his barrier-void ability and sent Connor flying down to the ground. As Connor skidded to a stop on the ground it was announced that Ichika was the winner by a remaining one hundred shield energy as Connor was at zero energy. Connor then got up and his IS went back into standby mode and started walking towards Ichika who had done the same. The crowd of their classmates were cheering and the two boys shook hands.

"That was one hell of a fight Connor! You almost had me with that change to first shift." Ichika said with a smile.

"Yeah, but you still pulled out on top. Looks like I've got some more to learn." Connor said modestly with a laugh.

After the fight class was dismissed for the day and Connor had decided to go and get some food from the cafeteria. When he got there he simply got a turkey sandwich and an iced tea and sat down at an empty booth. He looked up at one of the many TV screens in the room that was showing his and Ichika's mock battle from class that a student had recorded.

No one bothered him thankfully as he ate his sandwich and drank his tea. When he was done eating he sat there and slowly rank his iced tea. He then yawned and someone tapped his shoulder. He looked over to see who it was and saw Charlotte with Laura behind her.

"Are these seats taken?" She asked, referencing to the seats across from him at his booth.

"Nope." He said and the two girls sat down across from him as he continued to drink his tea.

"That was a spectacular fight today." Charlotte said and Laura slowly nodded her head in agreement.

"It seemed as if you knew your first shift was going to happen, so you took a gamble that Ichika would be stunned by it and you would land a good blow in. And your gamble paid off. Am I wrong?" Laura asked Connor and he chuckled and shook his head.

"Spot on." He said and then taking another drink.

"But how did you know your first shift would happen?" Charlotte asked him and Connor waved his finger.

"A magician does not reveal his secrets right after the trick." He said with a slight smile. He then yawned again and checked to see what time it was. It was barely past eight, and he sighed. He was quite tired after that match and Flare had been silent for most of it, gathering data on weapons and the new code she was able to explore.

Connor then excused himself and finished his tea before throwing the bottle away as he left the room. He then went up to his room and searched in his bag for a small box and took something out of it. He then went to the roof and sat down with his back against the railing and pulled out what had been in the box, a small cigarette. He then lit it and his thoughts began to wonder back to his eighteenth birthday back in the states at the hanger, then to his sixteenth birthday that he had spent with his sister playing a new game he had bought with the money from his part time job as a cook.

As he blew out a puff of smoke and sighed he saw the door open and Charlotte walked out and looked at him.

"Those things will kill you, you know." She said as she stood on the opposite side of him.

"You sound like my sister." He said with a soft chuckle as he blew out another puff of smoke.

"You miss her, don't you Connor." She asked him and he slowly nodded.

"Yeah, I really do." He said and he sighed.

"Well, don't worry. I'm sure you'll see her again soon." She said and put a hand on his head and ruffled his hair.

 _"_ _So soft!"_ She thought to herself.

Connor just laughed and finished his cigarette before putting it out and putting it in a small case so he could throw it away later. He then got up and stood beside Charlotte.

"I'm older than you, so don't think you can get away with doing that without it happening to you back mon amie." He said as he ruffled her hair in return with a laugh.

The two then had a good laugh before heading back to their respected rooms, wishing each other a good night. When Connor entered his room he saw Ichika at his desk.

"What are you doing Ichika?" He asked as he walked past him and grabbed some clothes to change into after he showered.

"Just going over a few things for tomorrow's class. We're having to decide on things to do for a festival near the end of the year after the tournament." Ichika said.

"What's so hard to decide about a festival? You know what, let me take a quick shower and I'll help you." Connor said as he walked towards the shower.

After his shower Connor felt refreshed and went back into the main room to see Ichika still trying to decide on what to do for the festival. Connor then sat down beside him and looked over what Ichika had written, unsurprised to find it was nothing. Connor then sighed and then looked at the other list of what was hardly ever picked. He saw one that said 'Grilling' and smiled."

"Hey Ichika, I think I got us something." He held up the grilling section to Ichika.

"Yeah, that'd be nice, but what will you be doing?" Ichika asked and Connor laughed.

"I may not seem like it, but I was quite the cook back in America. You get the booth and I'll get the ingredients. Sound good?" Connor held out his hand.

"Sounds like a damn good plan." Ichika took Connor's hand.

After the boys stayed up for another hour discussing what they would be serving and who was better at cooking what. They then said goodnight and turned the lights off, both of them falling asleep pretty fast.

 **Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter.** **If you did, be sure to review, follow, or favorite.** **It lets me know if I'm getting better at writing this.** **And as promised here are the special thanks.**

 **PearlTapioca -** **Thank you so much for your review on my last chapter and for helping me fix some of my mistakes.** **Hope this chapter is better!**

 **manix32 – Thank you very much for favoriting and following my story.** **I sincerely hope that you are enjoying my story.**

 **If anyone has questions or anything like that, just review or send me a private message.** **Also, feel free to share my story with your friends and people who you think might like this story.** **Have a nice day everyone!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Notice: I do not own Infinite Stratos or any of its associated charaters except for my OC. Hey, everyone here comes another chapter of Inifinte Stratos: Burning Star. There will be a few announcements at the end of this chapter so be sure to stick around. Hope you all are enjoying the story so far!**

Connor woke up to the normal sound of Flare yelling in his head and groaned. He then sat up and yawned and checked the time and sighed. He was still waking up earlier than everyone else. He then got out of bed and got dressed in his uniform and sat down at one of the desks in the room and sighed softly.

 _"Flare, I want you to check and send me all the data on LoneWolf's weapons, and see if you can bust through the one-offs code blocking us from accessing it."_ He said to her and she grunted in agreement as she started looking at the code and weapons systems.

 _"_ _You should be able to check it in class today Connor. And as for the one-off ability, I'm going to need some time in order to break through it since I am not directly linked to the IS."_ She said to him and he sighed. He then began to think of an idea but then he looked at the clock and decided it would be time to wake Ichika up because of how long he takes to get ready. Connor then gets up and walks over to Ichika's bed and nudges the bluenette with his hand.

"Oi, Ichika, wake up or else you're going to be late for Miss Orimura's class." Connor said and Ichika opened his eyes slowly and sighed.

"Do I have to?" He asked rolling over in his bed and Connor groaned. He then thought for a second and smiled devilishly and head for the bathroom.

The sound of running water could be heard for a few seconds as Connor came back with a wet rag and stood with Ichika's back to him. He then smiled and quickly placed the wet rag on Ichika's neck and his friend immediately shot up with a shout grabbing the rag.

"What the hell man? That thing is fucking freezing." Ichika said while Connor was clutching his stomach laughing.

"Sorry man, but I had to wake you up because of how long you take to get ready." Connor said wiping a tear from his eye while his laugh died down. And Ichika then threw the rag in Connor's face with smile.

The two of them then laughed after Connor took the rag back to the bathroom and the two boys then went to class after Ichika got dressed. When the two of them walked into class everyone went silent and they looked around and then to each other and shrugged and went to their seats.

Connor sat back in his seat and sighed, wondering how his little sister was doing whenever the screen on his desk lit up and he leaned down and looked at it. It was the specs for his IS in its first shift sent to him by Flare. He then smiled and began looking through the weapons.

 _"Okay, so I have my sword, which is apparently called Dragons Breath, what else do I have?"_ He thought to himself as he scrolled though the weapons. He had found the air cannon he had used yesterday and apparently it would get stronger in second shift. He then saw four very interesting weapons and smiled.

What he had discovered was small minigun the could be deployed on his left arm replacing his spikes. He then had two shoulder mounted weapons that could only materialize one at a time. One was an average size missile launcher that launched specialized missiles called a Firestorm Launcher, each of the six missiles that could be fired had five tiny missiles on it that would home in on a target or targets the downside was that it had less of a blast radius. The next was a three-barreled launcher that fired shells at a very high velocity, but only one could be fired at a time as the barrel rotated, the recoil for that one would be crazy. The last was pistol that would be holstered on his side and could extend from a pistol to a rifle or shotgun.

Out of all these weapons he spotted something in the code that made him somewhat surprised. He read into the code and saw that his claws themselves were weapons. They could extend a bit and would emit a heat like his sword so it could burn or melt IS armor.

 _"Damn, whoever helped create this thing must have had a thing for fire and burning things."_ He thought and then sighed. He then looked over at the clock and groaned, he had missed most of this morning's lesson because he was reading so much into his IS.

"Don't forget class, we will be having a demonstration of weapon types by those with personal IS users. So, everyone will need to head to the arena after lunch." Chifuyu said and the class nodded.

After that the bell for lunch began and Connor left the room heading to the roof with another bag of chips and a drink. When he got to the roof, he opened the door and stepped out into the sunlight and took a deep breath. He then walked over to the railing and sat down against it and opened his bag of chips and drink and began to eat.

After finishing his chips he crumbled the bag up and put it in his uniforms pocket and began on finishing his drink. It was then that he heard some commotion down below and got up and looked over the railing and sighed.

It was Ichika and Houki, they were defending another student from being bullied from some second years. Connor sighed and began contemplating on whether or not to go down there and see what the issue was. He then grumbled to himself as he chugged the rest of his drink and started jogging to the door of the roof and down the stairs to the bottom floor.

Whenever he got there, he saw Ichika get slapped as the three second years walked off. Looked like it hurt from where Connor was standing. He then watched as Houki patted the girl on the shoulder and she went off running. Connor caught a glimpse of the young girl's eyes, they were an icy blue and stood there shocked and then shook his head.

"No way that's her, she shouldn't be here for another year at the least." He said to himself quietly as he walked of the building towards Ichika and Houki and chuckled.

"Can't catch a break can you Ichika?" He asked when he got closer and Ichika just sighed in response, slowling shaking his head. "I feel bad for you my friend." He said putting a hand on Ichika's shoulder as the bell for lunch ending sounded and the three of them headed to the arena with Ichika holding the side of his face that got slapped.

As Miss Orimura explained what they would be doing for the remainder of the class Connor sighed to himself. She had Charlotte and Cecilia deploy there IS's and asked them to explain to the class what weapons they were equipped with. Connor looked around, feeling like something bad was about to happen, he then shrugged it off as the two girls finished explaining what their weapons did and the deactivated there IS's.

As Miss Orimura was about to ask Ichika and Connor to deploy there IS's the alarm sounded and the ground started shaking. Miss Orimura then began yelling at the students telling them to get out of the arena, only Connor stood still, looking at the sky as something came into view and was flying for them at a very fast speed. He then looked to his classmates who were evacuating and he saw that they wouldn't make it by the time that thing went through the barrier and landed in the arena. Sighing, he activated his IS and flew to where the object would be coming once it came through the barrier.

"Rain, what the hell are you doing?!" Chifuyu yelled at him as he did so and turned around to face her.

"You aren't going to make it by the time that thing breaks through the barrier! I'm going to buy you some time!" He yelled back. Some of his classmates turned to look at him as they ran away and Chifuyu sighed.

"Orimura, go back him up until the teachers get here." She said to her brother and he nodded, deploying his IS and flying up beside Connor.

"You ready?" Ichika asked him and Connor chuckled.

"Not really, but fuck it." He replied and the two bumped fists as the barrier was destroyed and an IS of solid white with small orb like wings and large hands was in front of them and the boys deployed their swords. The boys then rushed the IS swinging their swords but the IS caught them and the boys grunted.

"Damn, looks like that didn't work." Ichika said as the IS released their weapons and they backed off.

"Don't worry Ichika, I've got some new toys I want to try out and this thing here will be my practice dummy instead of you." Cpnnor said, receiving a slight glare from Ichika and Connor laughed. "Relax dude, I was joking." Connor then dematerialized his sword and a minigun appeared on his left arm, replacing his spikes.

With the new weapon on his arm, Connor aimed at the IS and began firing as he moved to the side of the thing. Ichika then began to charge up the particle cannon in his left arm and moved the opposite way of Connor. The IS raised its two big arms at the boys and began firing lasers at them, the two boys then took evasive action to dodge the lasers

"I think it's an unmanned unit." Ichika said as he dodged a laser.

"What makes you think that?" Connor replied as he was hit by a laser in the leg and winced as his shields went down.

"It's just like the one I fought before, except it's white not black and gold." He said, firing a charged shot at the IS and hit it in the arm before it aimed at him. "Uh oh." He said before moving out of the way of the lasers.

Flare then verified to Connor that what Ichika said was true and the IS was, in fact, unmanned. Connor smiled, that meant he could go all out. He then motioned for Ichika to get back as a missile launcher materialized on his left shoulder.

"Firestorm!" Connor said as the six missiles in the launcher flew out at high speeds, each one coming in from a different direction. When the rockets were about to hit, they released five mini missiles that also struck the IS in the explosion that they had caused. He smiled as he saw the IS fall out of the sky towards the ground.

"Nice!" He exclaimed as the launcher vanished and Ichika gave him a high-five.

From the safety of the locker room, the girls could see the fight that was happening outside thanks to the TV in the room. As the girls could see, behind the boys as the floated to the ground, the white IS had gotten back and had aimed one of its hands at the boys. Though the thing was sparking and its left arm had gone limp, its right arm was still working as it powered up a large laser shot.

Thinking the battle was won, Ichika had his back turned to the machine while Connor stood sideways beside him as they waited for the teachers to get there so they could get out. Connor was laughing with Ichika when he turned his head to see the laser charging up and his face went to one of horror as he looked at Ichika and the IS. Time seemed to slow down as Connor pushed Ichika out of the way of the laser, drawing his pistol that had materialized on his hip and fired a single shot before the laser made contact. It had hit him directly in his chest and was flung back into the wall of the arena and held there as the beam kept coming.

"Connor!" Ichika yelled before flying at the IS and swinging his sword so it cut off the arm that was firing the laser and then ran his sword through its chest and it fell forward, powering down.

Ichika then looked over at Connor whose IS had went into storage mode and had fallen from his hole in the wall to face down in the dirt. He then rushed over to his friend and sent his own IS to storage mode and looked him over to see if he was okay. Connor then groaned into the ground before rolling onto his back, everything was spinning for him.

"Did we get it?" He asked groggily.

"Yeah, we got it man. How are you feeling?" Ichika replied with a smile.

"Good, and I'm great. Mind helping a brother up?" Connor asked holding out a hand and Ichika took it helping Connor up, supporting him with his shoulder.

As soon as the two of them got to the locker room the girls where cheering for them and Connor held a hand to his head and winced. He felt like that one time he had been to a college party with his best friend and got wasted. Every sound hurt and he just felt like sleeping the rest of the day away. Seeing how Connor looked, Chifuyu ordered Ichika to take him to the nurse's office immediately and that the rest of the class was canceled. Whenever they got there, Ichika had put Connor in one of the beds in the office and Connor groaned before passing out of exhaustion. The nurse came over to see him and sighed, saying he had a minor concussion and that she would alert him when his friend woke up. With a sigh Ichika left the nurse's office and went towards the cafeteria where he would meet up with Houki.

Whenever Ichika got to the cafeteria he Houki and immediately went over to her as the rest of his group joined them. They began carrying on their normal conversations, but everyone was a bit distracted by what had happened in the arena. Ichika sighed and Houki asked what was wrong.

"I think it's obvious, Connor got hurt because I was careless and thought that the fight was over." He said sadly and Houki put a hand on his shoulder and Cecilia spoke up.

"I wouldn't be blaming yourself Ichika dear. You would have done the same for him, just be glad he wasn't seriously injured by that machine." She said and everyone nodded in agreement.

"I guess you're right Cecilia. I'm going to head to my room." He said as he got up and excused himself.

Ichika then went to his room and sat down on his bed and he heard his phone buzz. He took it out and looked at it, he had a new message from that Flare person. He sighed and opened it, inside it read as such.

 __

 _"Dear Ichika, this is Flare. A…. mutual friend of Connor's. Listen, he's already been torn from one person he cared about so he doesn't really want to happen to anyone else. He took that hit because he truly considers you and everyone in your group a friend. Even if all of the latter doesn't think the same way towards him. So, don't blame yourself for his actions okay? He should be awake later so you should stop by."_ Ichika sighed as he read the message and typed out a reply.

 _"How do know all of this?"_ Ichika texted Flare.

 _"Have Connor tell you."_ Was the only reply he got before 'Flare' went offline.

Ichika then set his phone down and sighed and checked the time. It was just a little after three so he got up off of his bed and got on his computer. He decided to check on some things on the online market to see if any deals were coming up soon. After checking on the market deals for a few hours he heard his phone buzz and again he answered it, it was the nurse telling him that his friend was beginning to wake up. Ichika immediately got off the computer and went out the door towards the nurse's office.

Connor was lying in a bed with a hand to his head as he woke up looking around. He began to question where he was as the events from the arena began to fill his mind. He started to sit up when the door opened and Ichika rushed in.

"Where's the fire at?" He said with a laugh as Ichika softly punched him in the arm.

"I don't think you should be joking right now Connor." Ichika replied with a smile and Connor shrugged.

"What can I say, I'm a funny guy once you get to know me." He replied and the boys laughed.

"So, how you feeling?" Ichika asked, moving to stand beside Connor.

"I've been better. Feels like my head was split open." He replied as he maneuvered so he could sit up.

"Well, you did take a laser blast to the chest and was sent into a wall." Ichika said.

"Good point." He said as the nurse walked in and stopped in front of Connor.

"Now, Mr. Rain. If you are feeling up to it, you may go back to you room. Just be sure to stop in every now and then for a quick checkup. Other than that, you're free to go." The nurse said.

"Thanks Doc." Connor said slowly getting out of the bed and standing up, having to recover a bit before he almost fell. Ichika then put Connor's arm around his shoulder.

"I'll help you back to the room." He said and Connor nodded thankfully and the two began walking.

As the two were walking back to their Ichika looked at Connor and decided he would ask who Flare was later. As they kept walking they were met with a few stares from some girls and Connor sighed.

"I think I'm good to walk now Ichika." He said and Ichika nodded, letting Connor take his arm back and they began to slowly walk to their room.

When the two boys got to their room Connor immediately went to his bed and sat down with a sigh. Ichika looked over to his friend and Connor gave him a thumbs up. A knock came to the door and Ichika answered to see Houki and Charlotte standing there.

"How's he doing?" Houki asked with a bit of worry in her voice.

"He's doing good I guess, currently spacing out on his bed." Ichika replied to the girl.

"Mind if we come in?" Houki asked and Ichika nodded.

"Not at all." He said, motioning them in.

As the girls walked in, Ichika closed the door behind them and went to sit in one of the chairs in the room as the girls took the bed. Connor was still sitting there, but now he had his phone in his hand. They sat there in silence for a few minutes before Ichika broke the silence.

"So, Connor, I've got a question for you." He said and Connor looked up at him.

"Yeah? What's up?" Connor replied and Ichika sighed.

"Well, I'm sure we've all gotten a message from this 'Flare' character, so I think we should know who he or she is." Ichika said and then Connor sighed.

"Yeah, I do owe you that much. Just, promise you won't freak out?" He asked and everyone nodded.

Connor took a deep breath before pressing a few buttons on his phone and holding up for them to see. On the screen was what looked to be a call that was connecting. When the call connected a female voice spoke.

"It is a pleasure to finally officially meet you three. My name is Flare, Connor's AI that was inplanted into him two years ago. I have been helping with his IS since he obtained it." Falre said and everyone was shocked and Houki raised a finger slightly bent with a questioning look on her face.

"I thought AI technology was very experimental and that the IS already had an AI in it that helps the pilot make small adjustments." Ichika said and the others looked at him and he shrugged. "Believe it or not, I do study."

"You are correct Ichika, but I'm the first experimental AI that has been given a full personality and given to a human being." Flare responded and then said, "Now, if you will excuse me, I have some checks to run on Connor's IS after that fight earlier." With that the call was ended and Connor put his phone away.

"And the secret is out." Connor said with a sigh and looked at the other three people in the room.

"So, that's how you knew you're first shift would happen." Charlotte said and Connor nodded.

"Flare has been a real help to me since I've been here." He said and then checked the time. Nearly eight o'clock. He then stood up and excused himself.

"Where are you going?" Houki asked him.

"To get some food, I'm starving." He replied with as he left the room, leaving the three to talk amongst themselves.

 _"Do you think it was wise to tell them about you Flare?"_ He asked his AI companion.

 _"I figured they would find out soon enough. Now I've noticed you've got an idea cooking up in your head, mind telling me what it is?"_ Flare responded to him.

 _"Yeah, I've been thinking about what you said this morning about not being directly linked to the IS. And I figured that I could change that."_ He said to her.

 _"How so?"_ She asked him and he casually pressed a hand to the back of his head for it to placed on a small round piece of metal that was hidden by his hair.

 _"By transferring you from me to the IS by placing you directly into it. You'll still be able to communicate with me mentally because of how long we have been connected."_ He said as he walked into the cafeteria and got in line for his food.

 _"Risky, but it might just work."_ Flare said before she stopped talking while Connor ordered his food.

Connor went and sat down with his turkey sandwich and tea and sighed. He missed American food so much as he took a bite of his sandwich. Soon he would be able to start cooking again, once the ingredients Ichika ordered came in.

As he was finishing his sandwich his phone buzzed and he looked at it, he had gotten a message from Miss Orimura. He dreaded to see what it says as he opened it. As he read the message he sighed and quickly ate the rest of sandwich and chugged his drink, he was to be at the IS mechanic room for them to check on LoneWolf since he was moving around.

Connor sighed as he walked into the room, looking around he saw Chifuyu standing there waiting for him and he walked towards her.

"Alright Rain, activate your IS." She said and Connor did so and she instructed him to move to a spot in the wall where he parked his IS.

"So, what all are they checking for?" Connor asked as his IS was scanned.

"Any parts of the armor that may have been damaged in the attack. And since we would have to order them from the manufacture the parts might take a bit to come in." She said as the scan was complete.

"So, in other words, your making sure that I wouldn't be able to miss out on the tournament." He replied and she gave a nod.

Connor then looked over and on a table was the IS that he and Ichika had defeated earlier that day. He looked at it questionably as the data from his IS was being examined. Connor was brought back to looking ahead of him with a loud "ahem" from Chifuyu.

"It seems your IS is in fine after that fight, you may return it to its closed form." She said and Connor did so, landing on the floor.

"So, what's up with that thing?" He asked as he walked past Chifuyu and she glared at him.

"It's classified information. Now go back to your room." She said sternly and he sighed leaving to go to his room.

Whenever Connor got back to his room he found Ichika asleep and went over to his own bed. He then sat down and took a deep breath as his hand went to the small metal circle on his neck. He then closed his eyes and pressed it, from the circle came a smaller SD card object. He then took the small card and pressed a button on the side of his IS's collapsed form. A small slot opened up and he put the card in and waited for Flare to get accustomed to her new space.

 _"Well, what do you think Flare?"_ He thought as he looked at the IS.

 _"It's a lot bigger than your brain so that's a plus. But I should be able to access the code and figure more out about the IS from inside here."_ She said and Connor glared.

 _"That was mean Flare."_ He thought and she laughed, apologizing.

After that, Connor decided that it was best to get some sleep now and laid down on his bed and closing his eyes. As he drifted off to sleep, Connor dreamed of days from his past, a smile on his face as he did so.

 **Hey everyone! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! As always, if you enjoyed please leave a review, follow, or favorite. It lets me know that I'm doing good on my story. And now, for the thanks from all the new people who left a review, followed, or favorited the story as of the time I'm writing this.**

 **Thank you so much to Erosdeath and Littlemw929 for leaving a favorite on my story! It means so much to me that you two did that!**

 **Thank you to XD ComicsSans XD, TheDarkAuthor017, Soultaker155, N7 Recruit, Littlemn929, and Erosdeath for following my story! If any of you have any questions concerning my story just send me a private message and I would be happy to answer any of them.**

 **Also, thank you once again Erosdeath for you reviews on Chapter 1 and 2. I did send you a private message to explain some of the things you had commented on in your review, hope you are enjoying the story.**

 **And a final announcement! When writing this last section of this chapter, I noticed something. This story has gotten over 200 reads! That is absolutely insane! I NEVER expected to get that many views on my story! And, as a reqard for blowing away my expectations, I am going to choose one person from the following, favorite, or review section and send them a private message in the morning as I am very tired right now. That one person will be able to influence the little OVA or the next chapter, whichever they choose, just a bit. If anyone else follows, favorites, or reviews by the time I look at this in the morning, they will be added to the list. Also, a side note, if you are in all three sections, I will only count it as one so not to give certain people an advantage over others by doing all three.**

 **Now I hope you all enjoy this chapter and future ones that will be coming up. Please share this with friends or on social media even if you enjoy my story.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Notice:** **I do not own Infinite Stratos or any of its associated characters, but I do own my OC.** **Welcome back to another chapter everyone, hope everyone is having a nice day.** **There will be some thanks and an announcement at the end of the chapter so stand tuned!**

Connor slowly woke up groaning and sat up, his head still hurting from the attack yesterday. He looked over to Ichika's bed and found his friend was gone. Connor then realized that it was the weekend which was the only reason Flare let him sleep in. Connor then shrugged and got out of bed, holding his head slightly, before making his way to his dresser in the room to get some clothes to change into after he showered and yawned.

"Ichika's probably on a date with Houki or something since it's the weekend." He stated as he went to the bathroom to start showering.

After his shower Connor sat down at the computer desk and noticed that his foot hit something, looking down he saw a cardboard package and decided to open it. Grabbing the package, Connor set it on the counter so he didn't get any of the contents on the computer desk. Opening the package he smiled, inside where some ingredients and cooking utensils. He silently thanked Ichika before getting some of the ingredients out of the box and setting them out. He looked over the ingredients he had and sighed a bit, no meat. He then shrugged and got to work, donning a cooking apron and smiled.

"I may not have any meat, but that doesn't mean I can't make something delicious!" He stated as a fire appeared in his as he took out a knife and began chopping some of the ingredients and prepared a pan with some olive oil in it.

After about thirty minutes of cooking Connor looked at the meal he had made and smiled proudly. Just as he was about to put the final touches on it he heard a knock at the door and sighed as he went to open it. As he was about to open the door he realized he was still in his apron and shrugged, opeing the door he was met with a blonde with a questioning look on her face.

"Hey Charlotte, what's up?" Connor asked as he looked at the girl.

"Well, you weren't answering your phone so I decided to see if you were still asleep." She said before she took a deep breath, "what is that wonderful smell?" She asked.

"Oh, that would be the food I just made." He replied motioning to the apron he was wearing over his clothes. "Would you like to come in?" He asked and the blonde nodded, walking inside the room and Connor closed the door.

Charlotte sat in one of the chairs as Connor took the pan he was cooking with earlier and dumped them into a pot and stirred it a bit before taking some of its contents and pouring them into two small bowls and then walked over to Charlotte who looked at the dish.

"What is this?" She asked as he handed her a bowl and a spoon.

"Soup, one of the few things I can make without meat and more ingredients." He replied as he sat down and put his spoon into the bowl.

"Oh, cool." She said as she dipped her spoon into the bowl and brought it back out and blew to cool it down before eating it, her eyes going wide. "This is so good!" She exclaimed.

"Glad you like it." Connor said with a slight blush.

-  
 **For reference to the soup he made, looked up Spicy red tomato and lentil soup.** **Now back to the story.**

After the two finished eating their soup Connor put what was left in the pot in the small fridge in the room. The two then smiled at each other with a slight blush on Connor's face.

"So where'd you learn to cook Connor?" Charlotte asked him.

"I started working as a part-time cook for a local restaurant for a bit before I just started making my own stuff." He said and then frowned. "If that IS never activated for me, I would have gone to college for it. I had a lot of scholarships waiting for me when I graduated from school." He sighed and sat back down.

"I'm sorry to hear that Connor." Charlotte said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "But you and Ichika are doing a grill booth for the festival right?" She asked and he nodded. "Maybe you can get one of the cooks to let you cook for the academy on the weekends?" She said with a smile.

"Yeah, that'd be fun." He replied with a smile. "Thanks Charlotte." He said and she blushed a bit looking down.

"Do you want to go and spar or train?" She asked him.

"Sure, sounds like fun." He said standing up and she did the same. "I'll meet you in the arena."

In the arena the two stood with IS deployed and Connor had his pistol out with the holographic targets up and he was aimed at them.

"You'll want to make sure that you have a good stance before you start firing." She said and Connor adjusted his footing.

Taking aim again Connor fired at the targets, hitting the middle on a few while on the others he hit just beside it and his score popped up and he sighed.

"Not bad, is this your first time shooting?" Charlotte asked him and he shook his head.

"I've shot regular guns before, but this is the first time shooting this weapon." He said as he inspected his gun. "It has a bit more kick than I would have thought."

"That's to be expected, it's a small weapon with some powerful rounds." She replied as he holstered his weapon. "Want to try and fight me?" She asked.

"Sure, seems like it would be fun." He said as he backed up and his sword and shield appeared in his hands as he took his stance.

Charlotte deployed her two submachine guns and took aim at him. They both counted down from three and the fight began with Connor dashing towards her as she opened fire. Most of the rounds connected with his shield as he put it in front of him as he continued towards her. When he got close enough he took a swing with his sword before she backed away and shot at him again.

Backing off, Connor's sword disappeared and he switched his shield to his other hand as his minugun appeared on his left arm and he returned fire. Most of the shots connected as he sprayed the bullets at her before a light shield appeared in front of her, blocking the rest of his shots. He groaned and dashed at her again as she made the gun in her left disappear and some type of cylinder formed on her lower left arm.

As Connor got close, his shield vanished and the claws on his hand glowed the same red as sword and extended a bit. He then took a swing at her and she backed up, making him miss as she brought her left arm up and the top of the cylinder popped off and a spear type weapon appeared. Charlotte then swung her arm into his side as the spear came forward and Connor skidded back, holding his side.

"A shield pierce? How is that fair in a spar?" He asked as she just shrugged.

Growling he backed off more as the missile launcher appeared on his left shoulder and fired one rocket towards her. She then fired at the rocket, exploding it, but the five mini rockets on it came through the explosion and impacted her and smoke was around her. Seeing his chance, Connor charged once more with his right hand at his side. As the smoke cleared Charlotte saw Connor practically right in front of her as he swung his claws at her, striking her left arm as she attempted to block his attack, the metal on it melting a bit. As Connor then backed off, he smiled. They were both breathing a bit heavily and began to laugh.

"Think that's enough, thanks for the spar Charlotte." He said walking towards the girl.

"Yes, it was quite enjoyable." She said with a smile

"Maybe we can do this again some time?" Connor said extending his hand.

"Definitely." She replied taking his hand and shaking it, and they both sent there IS's to their sealed forms and began to walk out of the arena.

-

After the two changed back into their normal clothes they met up outside the school and started walking around the grounds. As the two walked they began to look at the trees and nature that were near the school.

"I never knew that the academy had this much of a natural area surrounding it." Connor said as he walked towards the water and took a deep breath.

"It is quite amazing." Charlotte said walking beside him.

"Do you need to do anything today?" He asked her and she shook her head.

"I've got nothing to do all weekend." She replied.

"Well, would you like to go into town with me? I need to get some ingredients and some better casual clothes." He said, motioning to the plain black t-shirt and jeans.

"Sure, I would love to." She replied and the two headed back towards the dorms.

-

Connor sat at the tram station, waiting for Charlotte to get there. He checked his phone and decided to give someone he would rather not talk to a call. He dialed the number and put the phone against his ear, mentally asking Flare to record the conversation. As the phone rang a few times someone finally picked up.

"What do I owe this call to Mr. Rain?" A voice said.

"I want to know how my sister is doing Bastard." Connor said in a low and angry tone and the voice on the other end of the line laughed.

"You should know, she just transferred into class one-three a few days ago. Have you not had the courage to talk to your own little sister?" He asked in a joking manner.

"You damn well that's not why. I left her alone for two years because of you and your group of 'researchers'. Why is she here? Did something happen at home?" Connor asked, his voice becoming agitated.

"She was moved up a grade because of her skills with the IS so don't worry about her. We even made a deal with Scotland for her to represent them and give her her own personal unit. That is where she was originally born was it not?" The man said with a laugh and Connor lowered his voice.

"Listen and listen well you son of a bitch, if you try to do anything remotely close to her as you did to me, I will personally rip out your heart and crush it in my bare hands." He said, almost in a growl.

"Not to worry Connor, being as she is representing Scotland, we can't lay even a finger on the girl. So don't worry, you're the only we a concerned with. Also, you should receive a package soon, it's a few upgrades for your IS along with some extra parts. Figured you could use them." The man said hanging up and Connor sighed, in both relief and worry. Connor then put his phone up and saw Charlotte walking towards him.

"Sorry I'm late, hope you haven't been waiting long." She said with a bit of a smile.

"Not a problem, and I actually only got here a few minutes ago. You ready to go?" He asked her and she nodded.

"Yep, let's get going." She said and they boarded the tram heading for the city.

As the two of them got off the tram and went into the city they began looking for a shop that would have cooking supplies. As they wandered the shopping district they found the store they were looking for.

"Finally." Connor groaned as they went inside. "We were walking forever." He complained.

"We didn't walk that much." Charlotte said looking at him and he sighed, lowering his head.

As they walked around the store, Connor grabbed things that he would be needing. These things included a cheese grater, a bottle of cooking alcohol, a few pot holders, a peeler, and a chef's hat. He then paid for the things and they walked out of the store with Charlotte giving him a confused look.

"What was the last one fore?" She asked him.

"Well, you simply can't be making fine dining food without wearing a chef's hat." He replied as he smiled goofily.

"You're crazy." She said jokingly and Connor nodded slowly.

"Tell me something I don't know." He said with a laugh.

"Come on, let's go find a clothes store." She said with a laugh.

-

As the two entered a nearby clothing store Connor grabbed a few sets of clothes that he found that he wanted to try on while Charlotte found a seat near the changing room, waiting for Connor to finish grabbing the clothes he wanted to try on. Connor then walked into a changing room and closed the curtain behind him.

After a few minutes the curtain opened up again Connor walked out in a pair of black jean that were faded on the knees and a black t-shirt with the head of a blue dragon on it. Charlotte stifled a laugh at the shirt and Connor noticed this.

"What? It's my own design from when I had a sponsor as a gamer." He said as he turned around and on the back of the shirt with his last name on it in red as the letters appeared to be dripping.

"I think it's nice." She said with a smile and Connor groaned a bit. He then went back in and closed the curtain again.

When the curtain opened again, Connor walked out in a pair of red cargo shorts with a black muscle shirt and Charlotte noticed part of a tattoo on right shoulder.

"Well, what do you think?" He asked looking at Charlotte smiled at him.

"Looks great." She said and Connor blushed a bit.

He then closed the curtain again and a few minutes later he walked back out in the black jeans and black t-shirt and just laughed at him.

"Oh hush, I like this outfit." He said walking towards the counter to purchase the clothes and grabbed the bag that held his other outfit and the clothes he walked in with.

The two then left the store as the clerk bid them farewell and began walking again until they saw an ice-cream stand and they smiled. Walking up to it the clerk asked what they will be having.

"Got any new flavors?" Connor asked the waiter and she nodded.

"We just came out with our mystery flavor. Is that what you would like?" The waiter asked him and he nodded while Charlotte ordered a regular strawberry ice-cream.

After waiting a few minutes the two were handed their ice-cream and they paid, going to a nearby bench to sit down. Connor saw Charlotte smile as she ate her ice-cream and looked at his own which was a pale blue compared to her pinkish colored ice-cream. With a deep breath he tried his pop-sickle and looked at it with a weird face.

"Something wrong?" Charlotte asked him.

"No, it's just that this flavor is weird. It's salty, yet sweet." He said as he continued to eat his pop-sickle and Charlotte shrugged.

As the two of them continued eating their ice-cream they heard a commotion behind them, looking in said direction was a small group of people talking about the two of them within earshot. They looked at each other and sighed, Connor then stood up and faced the group of people with a stern look on his face.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Connor asked and the talking stopped before one man, who appeared to be in his mid-twenties, stepped forward.

"Sorry if we bothered you, but we were all wondering if you happened to be the real Rain of Team Misfits that disbanded three years ago." The man asked and the group nodded.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Who's asking?" Connor asked and the man pulled out a business card and handed it to Connor.

"Sorry for not introducing myself, I am the CEO of a small gaming company, me and my coworkers here were wondering, if you are the real Rain, if you would be interested in a small tournament that is happening tomorrow that we will be hosting. It's one vs one and there will be slight media coverage." The man said and Connor sighed.

"Sorry, but I don't do gaming tournaments anymore." He said. "And if you are trying to find someone from Misfits, don't call them by their last name. Call them the title they earned, for example." He moved his shirt collar down and to the right a bit to show a tattoo of a blue dragon. "Mine would be Blue Dragon."

As soon as the words left his mouth the group smiled and Connor groaned, who would've thought that he would have fans here of all places. He then looked at Charlotte and she had just finished her ice-cream. They nodded to each other and Connor back up a bit, and before the guy or anyone in his group could say anything they bolted.

Connor had what was left of his pop-sickle in his mouth as the two of them made a break for the tram station, hoping to catch a ride to the school before any of the group chasing them could catch them again.

As they got to the tram station they hurry and boarded a tram that was just about to leave and were breathing heavily. The two looked at each other and smiled before breaking out in small laughter.

"Well, that was interesting." Charlotte said, getting her breathing under control and taking a seat.

"You're telling me." Connor said with a laugh sitting beside her.

"So, I take you still have fans from your gaming days." She said and he nodded.

"I guess I do." He said then looked at his IS in its sealed form. "Flare, you got the address of that company that is hosting that tournament?" He asked his AI.

"Of course, what do you take me for?" Flare said as Charlotte looked at him.

"What are you planning Connor?" She asked and Connor smiled at her.

"The return of the Blue Dragon. That's what." He said and she sighed.

After the tram dropped them off at the school they went back to Connor's room and he sat his stuff on his bed, getting out the cooking supplies and setting them on the counter. Charlotte then sat on Ichika's bed and stared at him with a smile.

"Can't wait to try your food at the festival." She said and Connor blushed lightly.

"T-thanks." He said as Ichika then came in the room, he looked tired.

"You alright there bud?" Connor asked him as Charlotte got off his bed and Ichika fell face first into it.

"Yeah, just been a long day." Ichika said, his voice mumbled by the bed.

"I got something to cheer you up then." Connor said as he opened the fridge and got out the pot and set it on the stove to reheat it.

"What would that be?" Ichika asked, lifting his head.

"Something I made this morning." He said with a smile as the aroma of the soup began to fill the room as it heated up.

"Smells wonderful." Ichika said as he moved to where he was sitting on the edge of his bed, Charlotte had moved over to one of the chairs.

Once the soup was reheated Connor made Ichika a bowl of it and handed it to him with a spoon. Connor smiled as his friend tried the soup and Ichika looked at him.

"This is amazing. What did you use to make it?" He asked and Connor listed off the ingredients he used off the top of his head, as well as how long each step took.

"You are incredible Connor." Ichika said and Connor shrugged.

"What kind of chef would I be if I couldn't name off the ingredients I used in my dishes. Speaking of which." Connor said as he got in the bag from the store and pulled out his chef hat and put it on and smiled.

"Really." Ichika said with a deadpanned look.

"Not you too! What is it with everyone hating on the chef hat." Connor said. "At least you like the new outfit right?" He asked, motioning to his new clothes and Ichika nodded.

"It's a Team Misfits outfit isn't?" Ichika asked and Connor nodded.

"Were you a fan of them?" Connor asked and Ichika nodded.

"I saw them a couple of times online. During an interview they all showed these strange tattoos they had their right shoulder area." Ichika said, eating some of his soup. Connor looked at Charlotte and smiled and she shook her head with a smile.

"Do you mean one like this?" Connor asked with a smile as he showed Ichika his tattoo and the bluenettes jaw dropped. "Surprise." Connor said.

As Charlotte excused herself from the room the two boys began nerding out about video games. Discussing things that happened during tournaments and just regular gaming. The sound of them laughing could be heard outside their room for hours.

"So, you're telling me, that the reason you guys disbanded was because you wanted to make a dramatic comeback?" Ichika said, putting his empty bowl up and laughing.

"Yep, and tomorrow is when I make my reveal back to the gaming world. Flare has already messaged the company hosting the tournament tomorrow and I've been given passes for all of my friends. So, would you guys like to go?" Connor asked Ichika.

"I'll have to ask the others, but I'm definitely going." Ichika said and they both smiled.

"Sounds like a plan." He said as they bumped fists and laughed.

Looking outside they saw that it was already night time and decided that it was best to get some sleep. As they got ready to sleep Connor took out his phone and texted Charlotte something and they turned the lights off.

Charlotte looked at her phone and smiled at what it said. In her text messages was a message from Connor that read as such.

 _"_ _Goodnight my cher, today was fun._ _Can't wait to do it again sometime."_

 **Hey everyone!** **Hope you all enjoyed chapter four of Infinite Stratos: Burning Star!** **Now there are a few references in this chapter so see if you can find them.** **Now, part of this chapter was influenced by the winner of last chapters little contest thingy.** **That person XD ComicSans XD.** **Go check out the stories on their page and show some love.** **Also, don't forget to follow, favorite, or review if you enjoyed this chapter.** **Now here are the thanks for everyone that is new.**

 **Thank you for following Arc-Angel-Of-Fire, TalonAlpha3, dragontear365, king carlos, and necronlord21.**

 **Thank you to all those that favorited this story as well!** **Hope I am making this enjoyable for everyone.**

 **And thank you all for the reviews on the last chapter.** **Each review helps fix something with my story so that I can make it better.**

 **And everyone, we are almost at 500 views!** **Once we get to or past 600 by the time I finish the next chapter, I will hold another event like the last chapter.** **Have a nice day everyone!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Notice: I do not own Infinite Stratos or any of its associated characters. There will be announcements at the end of this chapter so be sure to stay tuned. In the mean tine, enjoy this chapter of Infinite Stratos: Burning Star!**

Connor slowly awoke with a groan as he sat up in his bed and yawned. Looking over he saw Ichika still asleep and then checked the time.

"9:47 huh? Well, guess I should get ready." He said getting out of bed and stretching. He then went and took a quick shower and changed into his Misfits outfit.

After Connor got out of the shower he looked at Ichika who was finally waking up. Connor nodded to his friend before walking over to his things and began digging around. As he was doing so Ichika stood up and looked at Connor.

"Can't wait to see you in action man." He said with a grin and Connor laughed.

"Neither can the world I bet." He replied as he stopped looking in his belongings, "Found it." He said.

"Found what?" Ichika asked him, walking over to his friend.

"My old picture with my team. Knew I had it somewhere." He said setting the picture up beside his bed.

The picture showed five guys, all of varying age, and one girl with their arms on each other's shoulders. Connor smiled at the picture and Ichika put a hand on Connor's shoulder.

"You'll see them again Connor, I can feel it." Ichika said and Connor nodded.

"I better, or else I'm going to beat their asses." He replied as Ichika took a closer look at the girl in the picture.

"Hey Connor, that girl kind of resembles you." He said, pointing his finger at the girl.

"That's because she's my little sister. She's a huge gamer, so maybe she'll be at the tournament in the crowd. Her alias was Green Dragon." He said to Ichika.

"Wait, so the Twin Dragon combo you guys pulled off in that match of that fighting game was you two?" He asked, slightly dumbfounded.

"Yep." He said with a smile.

"Can you please not get any cooler." Ichika said with a frown.

"No can do my friend. Coolness just attracts itself to me." He replied with a slight laugh and then Ichika lightly punched him in the shoulder.

"Don't get to cocky now. Come one, let's go see if the others want to come to the match." Ichika said as he began walking out of the room and Connor followed.

After the two of them met up with the girls and asked them if they wanted to go see a gaming tournament, they left out the part where Connor would be participating, the girls agreed.

-

As the group made their way into the city via the tram they began walking around till they found the gaming company that would be holding the tournament. As the group walked in, Connor showed his tattoo to a guard, without the others noticing, and they walked in. Upon seeing the immense space the company's entrance room had the girls looked around with open mouths. Connor smiled and then he saw the place the contestants were to enter.

"Hey, I'll catch back up with you guys in a bit, there's something I need to do." He said waving bye to the group he began walking off.

"Where could he be going? The tournament is about to start." Houki said with a confused look and the others nodded.

Ichika simply shrugged with a smug looked and they walked into the room the tournament would be held. They were then seated in the front row, directly in front of the stage, and sat down waiting for the tournament to start.

-

As the room quickly filled up and everyone took their seats the lights began to dim as the man Charlotte and Connor ran into walked onto the stage with a mic in his hands. The room went quiet as he began to speak.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, today we will be hosting the first gaming tournament of this company. To celebrate such an occasion, we have invited multiple gamers from across the area surrounding the ISA and its associated districts. Everyone here is a gamer of their own skill and each are determined to win the tournament. Without further ado, let's begin the tournament!" He yelled that last part and the room erupted. The only ones not cheering was part Ichika's group, they were all concerned that Connor would miss the tournament that he and IChika had invited them too. Unaware to them, Connor had the best seat in the house.

As the tournament began, gamers from all over began competing in a various array of one versus one games. One at a time, each of the gamers were eliminated and sent back to the gamers lounge with their heads hung in defeat. As the final two contenders approached the gaming platform Ichika noticed something. One of the contenders was no other than his best friend, Dan Gotunda. When Dan and his opponent took to the platform they shook hands as many others had done in the other matches. With that the announcer turned on the mic in his hand and began to talk again.

"I would like to congratulate our two final contenders to making it this far. Now, a new reward for winning the tournament has come up. The winner will be able to fight the representative that we have found to well, represent our company. In other words, we have a sponsored gamer who the winner will get the honor of fighting. Whether win or lose, the winner of this match will still get the reward that was promised to them, while if they win against our sponsored gamer, they will receive another prize." He spoke.

At the announcement of a sponsored gamer fighting the winner the crowd went wild. On stage, the two gamers had their eyes filled with determination at the thought of beating a sponsored gamer. The two then took their respective seats and began their fight.

After a grueling fight that had everyone on the edge of their seats, Dan was announced the winner while the other gamer sighed and shook hands with Dan. The other gamer then walked off the stage as the announcer turned on his mic once more.

"Now that was an awesome fight between the two gamers wasn't it!?" The announcer asked and the crowd went wild. "Now as promised, Mister Gotanda will receive the prize for winning the tournament, and shall now face our sponsored gamer. Are you ready Mister Gotanda?" He asked and Dan nodded. "Then, without further ado, here he is!" The announcer pointed to where the gamer should be and then the lights suddenly went off as the monitor above the stage for the crowd to see both fighters screens lit up with two dark blue reptilian eyes.

"Who dares awaken me!?" The eyes seemed to ask with a sound of electricity crackling in the voice.

At the sound and sight of this, most people began to look around scared. The two eyes then opened and closed as a laugh filled the room. The screen then turned itself off and the lights slowly began to turn back on. Everyone gasped as there now stood a figure with a cloak around its figure with only its arms visible. Small chatter began to flow around the room as the announcer held up his hand and the room fell silent and he looked at the cloaked figure.

"Such a flare for theatrics. Well with that out of the way, are you ready to begin your duel Mister Dragon?" The announcer asked and the figure nodded as a hand moved up to unbutton the cloak.

As the cloak fell, most of Ichika's group did a small gasp. Standing there was none oher than Connor with a smug grin on his face. They all looked to Ichika and Charlotte, who sat there with a grin on their faces as Dan smiled at his new opponent and held out his hand.

"Let's make this a good match." Dan said and Connor took his hand with a smile and shook it.

"Wouldn't expect to give them any less." He replied and the two took their respective seats. A fighting game then appeared on the screen, waiting for both players to press start.

"This will be a best of five match, the first to three wins without the other hold any will win. Are both contestants ready?" The announcer and they both nodded. "Then begin!" He said as they both pressed start.

As the game booted up, the crowd sat in silence as did many others around the globe who were spectating the match online or on the media. The two then selected their fighters and the stage for the fight was locked in.

After an hour of grueling back and forth combos from both Dan and Connor, Connor won the first round, while Dan won the second. As the fight continued, it was beginning to show who had the upper hand, but he was enjoying the game too much to care if he won or lost. With Connor announced as the third match winner and Dan the fourth, the stage was set for sudden death. With an ominous music coming from the stage as the players got ready. After another thirty minutes of a closely tied match, Connor was announced the winner and the crowd erupted into cheers for such an amazing match. After the two boy then stood up and shook hands again, both smiling.

"Well, that was certainly an amazing match now wasn't it everyone!?" The announcer said as everyone erupted into cheers once more. The announcer then looked over to Connor and then to Dan. "Well, Mister Gotanda, you have lost this bonus round but you still won the championship. Please exit the stage to receive your reward." Dan then nodded and left the stage. "Now, I believe it is time to say the name of the person Mister Gotanda went up against instead of his alias. The one fighting Dan was no other the a member of the disbanded professional gamer team called Team Misfits! And this young man is no other than Rain, the Blue Dragon!" The announcer said and the crowd erupted into a larger cheer than when the fight was over.

Connor then took a slight bow towards the crowd and looked to Ichika and his group before smiling. All but Ichika and Charlotte were staring at him with opened mouths. The announcer went on to how Connor would be awarded a sum of money and a few other gifts for representing the company. Connor then walked over to the announcer and asked to given the mic, to which the announcer ablidged.

"First of all I want to say what a match!" He said and the crowd cheered and he held a hand up. "Now, secondly, I would to say I will not be accepting the money from this company. Instead, I will be giving the money to a charity of my choosing in my home country of America. And thirdly, I would like to send a message to the members of my old team. If you want to get ahold of me or send me a message, you should know that my address has changed." He then held up his right hand, which held his IS in its sealed form. "I am the second male pilot to be discovered and should you want to contact me, make an appointment with the ISA. That is all." Connor finished his talk by holding out the hand which held the mic and dropped it before walking off the stage, grabbing his cloak in the process.

The crowd erupted into a cheer once again as the announcer picked back of his microphone, saying that Mister Rain would not be taking any questions at the moment or anything of that nature. Ichika and his group, seeing Connor go through the door at the side which lead to the outside decided to leave as well.

-

It took the group a minute to find Connor, as he was no longer inside the building and was sitting outside with a pale blue popsicle in his mouth. Everyone then left the building as they saw him and ran over to him and he smiled.

"What's up guys?" He asked nonchalantly.

"You were in the tournament!?" Cecilia asked him and he nodded.

"You were once a member of a professional gamer group?" Rin asked him and he again nodded. Everyone then looked at Rin and she looked taken aback from it. "What? I know I may not look it, but I'm a gamer too." She crossed her arms and everyone laughed.

"So, why wouldn't you take the money Connor?" Ichika asked him and Connor looked at his friend.

"Because there are people in this world that need that money way more than I do. And to be honest, I didn't expect to win that match. I am three years out of practice, so Dan was a tough opponent." He replied, taking a bite of his popsicle.

Everyone nodded at his reasoning, but during their conversation they didn't notice the murderous nature coming from the building behind them as it exited the building. Connor then felt eyes on the back of his head and froze, turning around slowly to see a girl who looked a year or so younger than himself. The girl had crystal blue eyes and the same colored hair he had, the girl was wearing a green t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. She seemed to be the source of the murderous nature.

 _"Oh shit. Completely forgot about her."_ He thought to himself as Flare laughed at his discomfort. Connor then stood and completely turned to face the girl as she walked towards them. Houki then looked at Ichika.

"Hey, isn't that the same girl you stood up for from being bullied by those third years?" She asked him and he nodded. "What's she doing here?" She asked, little did she know her question would soon be answered as the girl spoke.

"Connor." The girl said through clenched teeth and Connor backed up slightly.

"H-Hey Lily. I didn't expect you to be here." He said with a nervous laugh as the others looked at him.

"You know her?" Ichika asked, but before Connor could answer, the girl answered for him.

"He should, after all." She spoke and Connor looked at her and they both spoke at the same time.

"She's/I'm my/his little sister." Everyone then looked at the two of them with wide eyes as the girl began walking towards Connor and he backed up more.

"H-Hey, come on sis. Don't be like that." He said holding up his hands in defense.

Lily said nothing as she ran at Connor and he turned around and began to run away. The younger girl then jumped over the bench with ease and began to chase Connor, the others watching with blank expressions.

"Come on sis! Leave me alone!" Connor yelled as Lily began to catch up to him.

It was all over for Connor as he seemingly tripped over nothing and fell down. This gave Lily the chance to catch up to her brother and she pulled one of arms behind his back while holding his knees down with her own. Connor cried out in a bit of pain as Lily pulled on his arm.

"L-Lily please stop! You're going to tear my arm off!" Connor yelled as he tapped the ground, Lily glaring at him.

"Should we help him?" Charlotte asked and everyone else shook their heads.

"One should not get in the way of siblings fighting." Ichika and Houki both said and the others nodded.

After being held in that position for nearly five minutes Lily finally let go and Connor grabbed his arm. He then looked to Ichika and his group and then back to his sister.

"The hell was that for Lily!?" He asked as he got up, stilling holding his arm.

"That's for not letting me know you were in Japan, and for not sending even the slightest form of communication for two years. I thought you had left for good." Lily replied, a bit of sorrow in that last bit.

"Sorry about that sis, but I wasn't really allowed to. I'll tell you everything later okay." He said and she nodded.

"Fine. Now, are you going to introduce me to your friends? Or do I have to beat it out of you." She said holding up a fist.

"Still as violent as ever I see." He said with a sigh and then walked over to Ichika and his group.

After telling Lily who was in the group she bowed to them in a formal greeting. The group then bowed back to her, each saying that it was a pleasure to meet the other.

"She's a lot better mannered than you Connor." Cecilia said and Connor glared at her.

-

The group then went to a local café and began to talk to each other. Lily then explained to everyone that she was the representative candidate for Scotland and showed them her IS, Valkyrie, in its sealed form, which was a necklace with a sword on the end of it. The sword had the color of black, blue, green, and red on it. The group gawked at the necklace before a grunt interrupted them. The grunt coming from Connor as he stared everyone down.

"Still as overprotective as ever I see." Lily whispered to Connor and he rolled his eyes.

As the group began talking more on the subject of Connor and Lily's past the sun had slowly began to set. They then decided that it was time to head back to the academy to get ready for school, as the weekend was coming to an end.

-

Once the group got on the tram to the school, Lily sat next to Connor far away enough for them not to be overheard.

"So, which one of them is your girlfriend?" Lily asked bluntly and Connor coughed and looked at her.

"What?" He asked her and she smiled.

"It's got to be the French one. You always did have a thing for French girls." She said with a laugh.

"T-That's not true." He replied with a slight blush looking away from her. "Besides, I don't have a girlfriend."

"Not yet." Lily replied and he just stared at her.

"What are you planning little sister?" He asked her with a slight glare.

"Oh nothing big brother." She said with a laugh.

Connor then sighed and they sat the rest of the way to the ISA in silence. Silently cursing whatever deity is out there.

-

Once there, they all parted ways as Connor and Ichika went to their room. When they entered Connor immediately went to his bed and fell on it and Ichika laughed.

"You had an interesting today didn't Connor." HE said with a grin and Connor flipped him off.

"Oh come on man, don't be that way. Your sister seems to be nice from the way she talks." HE said as he sat down on his bed and Connor glared at him.

"Fuck you man, she can be a devil when she's pissed off. And don't even get me started on what I think she's going to do." He said with a sigh.

"I'm not even going to ask, let's just get some sleep. We don't want to be late for class in the morning." Ichika said and Connor groaned.

"Fucking hell." He said as they both turned their lights off.

-

 **Alright everyone, that's gonna be it for the fifth chapter! Now, as promised, since we have passed 600 views, I am going to select a different winner from the following section for this series than I did for the one a few chapter ago.**

 **Once again, thank you to everyone for being so supportive of this story. It means so much to me that you all are enjoying it! Thank you to any new followers or anyone who has favorited this story. I hope this is enjoyable for you!**

 **I am also pleased to announce that I will be working on another story here soon to post alongside this one. It's not an Infinite Stratos story, but don't worry, I bet you all will enjoy it!**

 **Thank you all for reading this chapter, and please don't forget to follow, favorite, or review. Also, please share this story on any social media with friends you think might enjoy it. I look forward to continuing to write this story! Have a nice day!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Guess who back!? Sorry it has taken me so long to update. College and work have been a pain in my ass. And don't even get me started on writers block. Anyway, I think that's enough of an introduction for this chapter. As always, I don't own anything except my characters and their IS. Please enjoy this chapter of Infinite Stratos: Burning Star.**

The ringing of a cell phone slowly caused Connor to open his eyes. With a loud groan he sat up, yawned, and answered his phone. "Hello?" He said as he yawned.

"Hope I didn't wake you up Blue." A man voice said from the other end of the line. This voice caused Connor to smirk and shake his head.

"You always did have the worst damn timing White." He said with a chuckled as he stood up.

"Yeah yeah. You near a computer?" The man, now known as White, said.

"Yeah, why?" Connor said as he walked towards the computer in the room.

"Just get on it and open up your skype." He said with a chukle.

"You do realize that software is seriously outdated right?" Connor said with a grin as he logged on to it.

"Shut up, it's a great program and it's nearly untraceable!" The man said and Connor chuckled.

"Whatever you say man." He said with a smile as he got on and saw a window pop up and clicked answer on it.

When he clicked answer on the window, four other faces popped up on the screen. The names above them identifying them as White, Black, Jade, and Yellow. A large grin crossed Connors face as he shook his head and put a hand to his face. "You guys. So, I guess you saw my little debut the other day?" HE asked his old teammates.

With a nod they all grinned. The five of them talked for nearly an hour about the times that they played games together and what all of them had been doing. Turns out, Black was now the head of IS development in his home country of Ireland. Yellow was doing some archeological digs in southern Africa and was quite happy. Jade was now married and had a kid of his own, they all promised to meet up so they could let the kid see her unofficial 'uncles'. White is still in the gaming business it turns out, but instead of playing them, he's designing them.

"Anyone her from Red?" Connor asked, hoping that the only member, besides his sister, that was close to his age was doing okay.

"Apparently Red went back to Canada to spend more time with his family. Or something like that." Jade said. "We haven't heard from him in years sadly." Jade said with a sigh.

"Dang. Well, it was fun catching up with you guys. I'll try and get back on here after school today. White don't you dare say what you're about to." He said as he saw White opening his mouth to make some sort of joke, to witch White just grumbled and logged off. This caused the rest of them to laugh.

After saying their goodbyes Black stayed on. "Hey, Connor." He said in a serious tone. Black never used real names unless it was important.

"Yeah Gen?" He asked as he stared at the screen, a bit concerned as to why Gen would use his real name.

"You've got an IS now right?" He asked and Connor nods. "Good, I'm going to be sending something your way then. Consider it a gift from old times. Should be there at the end of the day, and it should bring back some old memories." He said and logged off.

With his screen now blank Connor stood up and stretched. He then looked at the time and saw that he had thirty minutes before class. Looking over at Ichika he smiled. "Payback's a bitch dude." He whispered as he got ready for class silently and then left with Ichika still asleep. Little did he know that karma, is also a bitch.

 **Class**

Connor sat in his room as he waited for it to start, almost everyone else had already entered the class except for Ichika. Looking at Connor, who had a small grin on his face, Houki walked over to him.

"Hey Connor, do you know where Ichika is?" She asked as the bell rang.

With a smile he held up three fingers. "Three…. Two….. One…" He said and pointed at the door as Ichika rushed in and ran to his chair.

As Ichika sat up, he looked over at Connor with an evil glare, to witch Connor only looked away and begin to whistle innocently before looking at Ichika and smiling. Houki looked between the two boys and tilted her head confused. After Ichika looked away Connor began to chuckle a bit as Miss Orimura walked in and glared at Connor.

"Care to share with the rest of the class what you find so funny Rain?" She asked him sternly and Connor immediately shut up and shook his head.

"Nope, all good here Miss Orimura." He said quickly and the rest of the class giggled a bit at that.

"Good." She says with a nod and then looks at her brother. "Ichika, care to explain to me why I saw you run into the classroom after the bell rang?" She asked him with a slight glare.

"I um….. I may have over slept a bit." He said as he shrunk into his seat to get away from her glare.

"I'll let you off for now, don't let it happen again got it." She said and he nods quickly. "Now, everyone get out your textbooks and turn to page 306 and begin reading." She said as she went behind the desk and stood there.

After a few minutes of reading Connor got bored and silently sighed to himself. _"Flare? You've been awfully quiet today. You okay?"_ He asks his AI partner.

 _"Of course I'm alright. I've just been thinking."_ Flare said and this caused Connor to smirk.

 _"Thinking? You hardly ever to that."_ He said and Flare mentally smacked him up side the head and made Connor wince. _"Okay okay, calm down sheesh. What's on your mind Flare?"_

The AI sighed and took a deep breath. _"I've been thinking of how thinks have taken a drastic turn here recently. Also, heads up."_ She said and Connor leaned his head to the left, nearly dodging a book sent at him.

Looking ahead he saw that it was his teacher and he immediately paled. After that Connor stopped talking to Flare out of fear of the eldest Orimura and what she would do to him. After sitting there reading for some time, Miss Orimura decided to give the students a break and end class early so that those in the tournament can train. Noticing class was getting dismissed Connor walked up to his teacher.

"Miss Orimura, I believe that there was supposed to be a package from the U.S. for me." He said as she stared him down.

After a good few minutes of silence she nodded. "It's down in the repair bay, follow me." She said and the two of them walked off.

 **Repair Bay**

As the two of them walked into the repair bay he saw several crates being opened and the contents of them placed onto a near by holding rack by standard IS units. Miss Orimura then directed his attention towards a set of boxes that had just finished being emptied and their contents nearby. Taking a deep breath Connor walked towards the parts and saw his name on the crate and inwardly sighed in relief.

His eyes then caught on to two very large guns. He walked up to them while rubbing his hands together. "Does my eyes deceive me? Are these GAU-12s? No, they aren't. They're the GAU-12 Equalizer." He said in awe. "Capable of a maximum output of 4,200 rounds per minute."

He then looked over at another storage rack and ran over to it and began inspecting the weapon. "Is this a….. No way. It's a freaking M68A1 105mm rifled tank gun." His smile widened and he began to chuckle. "Oh, this is going to be fun." He then looked back. "Miss Orimura, how do I get them transferred to my IS?" He asked her.

The woman then beckoned him over and pulled out a cord from the desk she was next to. "Give me your arm." She said and held it out and she plugged the cord into his IS in its standby mode.

After a few minutes the transfer was completed and she removed the cord. He looked back at the weapons and armor that came out of the crates and he saw them vanish in a burst of particles. "That's cool." He said and nodded to his teacher. "Thank you, Miss Orimura." He said and gave her a bow before leaving the room to head to the arena to train.

Chifuyu only sighed and shook her head as the boy left. "Better go and get the nurses office ready just in case." She said and walked off.

 **Arena 2**

Connor walked onto the filed in his IS suit and quickly summoned LoneWolf. "Ready Flare?" He asked and his AI nodded on the HUD that appeared on his machine. "Good, now initiate secondary shift!" He yelled and his IS began to glow and rise off the ground. "Hold it, we're almost there." He said as he could feel the armor beginning to change.

After a few minutes he opened his eyes and only saw black, blinking a few times his HUD finally appeared and he saw the outside of the darkness. Now while he could only see what was on his HUD, anyone from the outside of the unit could see a massive metal black and red wolf. Luckily for Connor, there was a few other people in the arena and their jaws were dropped at the sight.

"Flare? Was it successful?" He asked his AI on the comm link he shared with her.

"Yep, you're good to go Connor. Welcome to the LoneWolf's secondary shift, LoneWolf-Omega." She said and Connor grinned.

"Well then, lets go for a spin!" He said as he activated his thrusters and began to hover off the ground. "Okay, this is different. Flare, give me an outside view from one of the nearby cameras." He said and the video feed appeared on his HUD. "So, I'm a literal giant metal wolf. Alright, I can that." He said and sighed. "Let's try this one more time." He said and activated his thrusters again.

As Connor activated his thrusters once more, he actually managed to hover off the ground, without crashing to the ground, before he started to go forward. After getting used to this for a few more minutes he began flying faster. After an hour of flying, he was flying like that as if it wasn't different than how he usually flew.

"This is awesome!" He yelled as he flew around. "Now, lets check out these new weapons." He said as the tank barrel materialized on the back on the IS, a group of targets appearing at the other end of the arena and he fired the gun. When he fired it, his IS actually moved back a few feet from the blowback of the gun. When the shell the gun fired hit the ground, a large cloud of dust formed and Connor looked around. "Whoops! Had the wrong ammo equipped." He said with a chuckle.

"Alright, lets check out those other guns." He said as the cannon vanished and the two miniguns from earlier appeared on the hips of the IS, though to where they could fire in all directions. He took off running with the IS using its now four legs instead of two. The barrels of the gun began to spin up as he took off into the air and they began to mow down the targets below him as he was upside down.

After that he landed and his IS went back into storage mode. "Hell yeah!" He yelled as he pumped his fist in the air. Since he was busy celebrating his success he didn't hear someone walking up behind him.

"Good job Connor." Ichika said as he walked up behind Connor.

Connor froze and turned around to face his friend. "Hey buddy, you saw all that didn't you." He said and Ichika nods. "Well, shit."

"Don't worry man, I won't tell anyone about that crazy firepower you got now." Ichika said and Connor sighed in relief.

"Thanks man and listen, no hard feelings about this right?" He said hopefully.

"Nope, all's good." He replied with a smile.

Connor sighs in relief and pats Ichika on the shoulder. "Thanks man. I'll catch up with you later, I'm starving." And with that he left the arena, and he didn't see the evil grin Ichika had on his face.

 **Hallway**

As Connor walked to halls he began to feel as though he was being watched. Quickly looking over his shoulder he saw no one. Scanning the hallway one more time he turned his head back around and began to walk a much faster rate. When he rounded the next corner he stopped in his tracks. In front of him, that hallway was filled with girls holding various items and not the dangerous kind. Most of them had pictures, others had posters, and some even had games in their hands.

"Fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuck." He said as the girls noticed him.

"There he is, get him!" One of them in the back shouted and the girls began to run at him.

"Oh shit!" Connor said and began to run the way he came quickly. "Fangirls! Of course it had to be fangirls!" He cried out as he continued to run from the mob of girls.

 **The Boys Room**

After running away from the girls for hours without stopping Connor finally made it to the room and locked the door behind. Panting he went to his bed and collapsed face first one it. He heard the door unlock and Ichika walked in.

"What's wrong man? Had a rough day?" He asked with a smug grin.

Connor rose up and looked at Ichika. "Ichika, if you don't get rid of the grin on your face, I'll get rid of it for you. And trust me, my way won't be nice." He said as he clenched his fists.

"Okay sheesh, calm down man." Ichika said as he raised his hands.

With a growl Connor laid back on his bed and sighed. "I hate fangirls so much." He groaned to himself as he closed his eyes.

"Planning on going to sleep already?" Ichika asked his friend as he looked at him.

"Yes, now go away before I toss you out the window." He said angrily as he rolled over and laid on his back.

Ichika then slowly backed out of the room and went to the cafeteria. Taking a moment to finally Connor looked at his IS in standby form. He finally got the second shift unlocked, now if only he could the one-off ability unlocked.

 _"Flare, any luck on the one-off ability yet?"_ He asked and Flare responded with a sigh.

 _"Even with your secondary shift unlocked, I can't seem to get access to the one-off ability. It's extremely weird because I should be able to access it."_ Flare said in his head.

 _"Are you going through the second shifts code to get to it?"_ He asked, figuring that she was.

 _"No, but that might just….. Aha! Connor you're a genius!"_ She exclaimed as she finally managed to get the code for the one-off ability unlocked.

 _"I wouldn't say that."_ He said humbly as he scratched his cheek with a small smile. _"What does it say?"_ He asked her curiously.

 _"Let's just say, you're going to get a lot faster when you use it"_ She said cryptically.

 _"That leaves so much to the imagination Flare. Hey, see if you can do anything with that extra armor we got in those crates. I feel like the second form could be a lot stronger with more armor."_ He said and Flare immediately got to work on making designs and code for that.

"We are going to be a fucking powerhouse." He said to himself with a small laugh as he closed his eyes, only for them to shoot back open at the sound of his phone buzzing. Looking over at it he sighed when it was a blank number. "Hello?" He said as he answered the phone.

"Hey Blue, just checking to see if that shipment I sent got there yet." The recognizable deep voice of Black came through on the line.

"I don't know Black, been on the run from fangirls for the past three hours." He replied with a sigh.

Black laughs. "I see, well, I know how much you hate fangirls. I personally think you should just embrace the fact that there are girls out there who will follow you till you die." He said with a bit of a joking tone in his voice.

"Don't jinx me dammit." Connor said as he sat up. "Anyway, I'll go and see if the package came in. It should be in the mail office." He said and stood up.

"Actually, you might want to go to the repair bay, it's a big package." He said and hung up.

Connor looked at his phone and sighed. "What is with people and being cryptic today?" He asked no one but himself as he walked out of the room and towards the repair bay. "This better be fucking worth it." He mumbled.

 **Repair Bay (again)**

As Connor walked into the repair bay he saw a box that wasn't there earlier and he went to it. He saw that his name was on it and opened the box. What he saw inside made him smile widely and went inside the large box and dragged out a large sword that had golden sheath on it. He then went back in came back out with a normal sized sword that was exactly like the one he had dragged out. Going over to the desk he saw Miss Orimura get the cable from, he plugged into his IS and began the transfer of the weapon. When it was done both sword disappeared, and he smiled.

"I owe you one Black." He said and left the Repair bay and headed for his room, ready to call it a night.

 **Boy's Dorm**

As Connor walked in he quickly changed into a pair of shorts and fell onto his bed and yawned. "I'll have to get Ichika back for what he did today." He said as he yawned and closed his eyes. "Or maybe that can wait." He said softly as he drifted off to sleep.

 **And that ends the newest chapter of Burning Star, hope you guys don't mind a quick filler episode before stuff starts to get real.**

 **Also, I'm hoping everyone will see some of the newest clues that I put in this chapter regarding the alias' that Connor's old gaming team uses. First five people who can message me with the correct answer gets a shout-out at the beginning of the next chapter.**

 **Hope you all have a great day, this is CrimsonTheKing signing off for now.**


End file.
